WHAT IS ADDICTION?Addiction is a chronic brain disease that causes compulsive drug seeking use despite harmful consequences to the addicted individual and to those around him or her.

No one begins using drugs or alcohol with the intention of becoming addicted. For example, the use of alcohol begins with the notion that it will be used only on social occasions. In some cases, it is possible to maintain this level of use.

WHY DO SOME PEOPLE DEVELOP A PROBLEM BUT OTHERS DO NOT?For two decades, researchers have been struggling to identify the biological and environmental risk factors that can lead to addiction to alcohol and other drugs. Scientists know more about addiction now than they did 10 years ago, and they have learned more about how the addiction works. Substance abuse is an illness that can affect anyone: rich, poor, male, female, employed, unemployed, young or old. No ethnicity is exempt from these addictions. Currently, there is no explainable causative factor for substance abuse.